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NHBPM – Advice For Dealing With Negative Feedback In Your Community

Welcome. This post is part of the WEGO Health National Health Blog Post Month (NHBPM) challenge for November, 2012.

I’ve been very lucky, I haven’t really encountered much negative feedback in the chronic illness community. I think that is because we went looking for information and support from those living lives similar to ourselves and we are being supportive and as helpful as we can be to one another.

I believe we are also more forgiving when someone acts out of character. We know the roller coaster of emotions when living with a chronic illness. It’s more than having a bad night’s sleep, monthly hormones, a bad job/boss or an argument with a loved one. It’s the dealing with not only physical aspects of our illnesses but mental aspects as well. It’s the uncertainties that are now a part of our lives. Uncertainties that we never thought we would be dealing with, or we wouldn’t be dealing with them until our senior years.

However, there are people who we don’t know or whose story we have yet to learn. They may respond in a way that is inappropriate or that we don’t like. The only advice that I can give is this quote attributed to T.H. Thompson and John Watson:

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.